Death By Audio - anybody familiar?

[jetofuj]

There's not much talk about Death By Audio effects here, which is weird as they are so awsome (at least with guitar) I really wonder why?

Cheers, Kris

[bongomania]

We've had a bunch of posts about them, just not recently. Search on "dba" for best results. I've owned one of his pedals (a custom job) and used a couple others. The short version is that his pedals look fantastic but the sound is often too harsh and too noisy. He likes harsh noise music, and his pedals reflect that.

[Basstovsky]

They were featured in the movie Fuzz: The Sound that Changed the World, and what I saw of them there made them seem like druggies who like to make effects boxes that make insanely crazy sounds, as opposed to useable musical effects boxes, ESPECIALLY at one point where it showed one of them plugging in a guitar and just twiddling knobs like mad while horrible screeching sounds were coming out of the amp. They seemed far from professional, but this is all based on their sections of the film, and is not perhaps totally true.

[Mudfuzz]

I had the Interstellar Bass Overdriver that Ron Now had them make for a while it was good but didn't fit very well with my rig so when Ron wanted to buy it back a few months latter I was really happy. Personally I think the devi ever Karaoke Party is a much better sounding OD then the stellar Overdriver and it works with my bass which the DBA didn't and it is MUCH cheaper.

Oh and the KP doesn't need the bass mod that the DBA-IBOD had to keep your lows intact!

[Mudfuzz]

Originally Posted by Basstovsky

They were featured in the movie Fuzz: The Sound that Changed the World, and what I saw of them there made them seem like druggies who like to make effects boxes that make insanely crazy sounds, as opposed to useable musical effects boxes, ESPECIALLY at one point where it showed one of them plugging in a guitar and just twiddling knobs like mad while horrible screeching sounds were coming out of the amp. They seemed far from professional, but this is all based on their sections of the film, and is not perhaps totally true.

I read complaints on builds every so often as well as people trying to just get ahold of them, here and on other forums.

[rcubed]

RCCollin's comment of "don't feed their glue habit" always cracks me up. If you've seen the show 'It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia' then it's safe to say that DBA is run by Charlie.

[RCCollins]

Originally Posted by Basstovsky

They were featured in the movie Fuzz: The Sound that Changed the World, and what I saw of them there made them seem like druggies who like to make effects boxes that make insanely crazy sounds, as opposed to useable musical effects boxes, ESPECIALLY at one point where it showed one of them plugging in a guitar and just twiddling knobs like mad while horrible screeching sounds were coming out of the amp. They seemed far from professional, but this is all based on their sections of the film, and is not perhaps totally true.

i don't know if their scenes in that movie are more hilarious or more painful!

the funny thing is that the director was obviously a big DBA fanboy and despite every effort he makes to present them as some kind of innovative engineers, they come off like a couple of dufus hipsters whove smoked too many banana peels

i mean, any dorkwad can build a pedal that makes uncontrollable noises. If THAT's what i wanted to do, i'd be building pedals and electronic gizmos right now. But I play bass, so if I lay down 100 bucks plus, I want a pedal that's been designed by someone with enough expertise to make a flexible, musical, USEABLE product

[Joe Gress]

I think my comment about that movie was that the death of the DBA guys will be them falling of that ledge.

[RCCollins]

Originally Posted by joeinsprings

I think my comment about that movie was that the death of the DBA guys will be them falling of that ledge.

reminds me of a raymond pettibon drawing i saw inside the gatefold of the minutemen "double nickels" album: a naked hippy jumps off a building with his arms flailing. caption: i feel light-headed. i feel good.

[rcubed]

They have some good ideas but they aren't executed very well. I am a fan of 'A Place To Bury Strangers'. They have that fantastic wall of noise sound ala My Bloody Valentine. If he's mostly using stuff he built then some of DBA pedals are certainly usable.

[jetofuj]

I've seen this movie about history of fuzz as well. I don't really care who the guys from DBA are what (substance) inspires them What is important for me, is their products in terms of craftsmanship, reliability and retaining low end + company's customer service.

Demo clips mabe by PGS show that these dirt boxes have usage, for example Harmonic Transformer Fuzz, Octave Clang, Soundwave Breakdown Fuzz, Supersonic Fuzz Gun. Of course their usage is limited, but the same thing is with Woolly Mammoth. Great sounding fuzz, but you won't play every single piece with it. But still it's nice to have such one roaring dirt box in you arsenal.

[Spacelordmother]

Originally Posted by rcubed

They have some good ideas but they aren't executed very well. I am a fan of 'A Place To Bury Strangers'. They have that fantastic wall of noise sound ala My Bloody Valentine. If he's mostly using stuff he built then some of DBA pedals are certainly usable.

+1

"Usable" is w i d e l y subjective.

[RCCollins]

Originally Posted by Spacelordmother

+1

"Usable" is w i d e l y subjective.

i'm not bashing "experimental" or "noise" music. Listen, i once "studied" under Gordon Mumma (note: kind of an exaggeration). I get the idea of making your own instruments with electronics.

but there's so much multi-hundred dollar noisemaking material around these days, why actually get into it yourself? you can just purchase a noisemaker and start making noise without actually doing any "experimenting" beforehand!

it's a case of consumerism substituting for creativity, and DBA are at the cutting edge

[Spacelordmother]

Originally Posted by RCCollins

but there's so much multi-hundred dollar noisemaking material around these days, why actually get into it yourself? you can just purchase a noisemaker and start making noise without actually doing any "experimenting" beforehand!

it's a case of consumerism substituting for creativity, and DBA are at the cutting edge

Excellent point, Sir.

"noise" is too easy to achieve these days.






(but I still want a Sound Saw)

[RCCollins]

Originally Posted by Spacelordmother

Excellent point, Sir.

"noise" is too easy to achieve these days.

noise can NEVER be too easy to achieve

but "noise" music and other experimental forms are a lot more interesting when there is some thought and concept behind it. All too often it is produced by "artists" who actually failed at punk rock!

[jetofuj]

I'd say that there is noise and the noise. First situation is just making dumb noise and the worst thing about it is that people often tend to think that it's alternative and great - that it has value (when obviosuly has not). Second situation is when you have some sort of control over this process and you know what you want to express.

I have fuzz sound in my head that I'm looking for. While listening to one of DBA clips I thought that this pedal might help me to achive this particular sound. There is no noise philosophy in it.

[RCCollins]

i'm not even against LOSING control in the creation of music. there are lots of different creative processes

i guess my point is that once you're in the realm of less-than-subtle electronic effects that are mostly about feedback generation, you might as well get into the instrument making yourself - isn't that how DBA started? Surely someone around here can do better than that...

[bongomania]

Originally Posted by jetofuj

What is important for me, is their products in terms of craftsmanship, reliability and retaining low end + company's customer service.

Unfortunately, DBA does not score high on the craftsmanship. Their custom pedals are like boxes of wire spaghetti. This makes me doubtful about their future reliability.

[rcubed]

Just clarify (I do agree on the points made though), that A Place To Bury Strangers isn't a straight noise project. It's a band taking the MBV route with wall of sound with pop/melodic vocals/melodies so there is some songwriting being done.

[Spacelordmother]

Originally Posted by rcubed

A Place To BuRy Strangers

Originally Posted by RCCollins

but "noise" music and other experimental forms are a lot more interesting when there is some thought and concept behind it. All too often it is produced by "artists" who actually failed at XXX!

Indeed, but this is true of all things. Noise just happens to sound "easy" to the uninitiated, especially nowadays with the increasing preponderance of noise-creating boxes.